BBX Minerals (ASX: BBX) has announced a maiden mineral resource estimate of 15.71 million tonnes for the Adelar prospect within its wholly-owned Três Estados project in Brazil.

The estimate grades 1.17 grams per tonne 5E PGM and contains a total of 590,300 ounces combined platinum, palladium, iridium, rhodium and gold.

It covers an area of 0.31 square kilometres, which represents only 8% of the known gabbroic bodies at Tres Estados.

The mineralised zone extends for 800 metres along strike with a true thickness of 2m to 50m, averaging 15m and dipping approximately 20° to the west-north-west.

It remains open at depth and to the east and west.

BBX said the mineral resource is located relatively close to surface and would be mined in an open pit.

It is limited to a depth of 100m below surface based on the depth of the deepest mineralised intersection.

Chief executive officer Andre J Douchane said the presence of rhodium and iridium have contributed significantly to the average weighted price per ounce of Adelar’s platinum group metals.

He said the next resource upgrade would target the addition of other prospects within the Três Estados.

Project location

The Três Estados project is located 60km southeast of Apuí, over the mapped Colider group, which is a prolific volcanic Proterozoic unit for gold and base metal deposits.

BBX’s tenements sit over a series of gabbroic intrusions defined by prominent east-west and northeast-southwest magnetic anomalies, local gold-in-soil geochemical anomalies and shallow artisanal gold workings.

The anomalies are associated with magnetic lows within or adjacent to the high magnetic trend and are suggestive of magnetite destruction by hydrothermal fluids.

Mineralisation intersected during initial reverse circulation drilling at Três Estados was shown to have the same characteristics as that of BBX’s nearby Ema gold project.

Re-evaluating drill core

In September, BBX used a proprietary process to re-evaluate drill core from holes completed in a 2017 reverse circulation program at Adelar.

Two holes returned numerous mineralised intervals with highlights of 4m at 1.30g/t 5E PGM from 24m; 5m at 1.34g/t 5E PGM from 40m, including 1m at 3.04g/t 5E PGM; 2m at 4.74g/t 5E PGM from 18m; 2m at 1.62g/t 5E PGM from 24m; and 2m at 0.9g/t 5E PGM from 30m.

Across both holes, peak values for each mineral were 3.65g/t platinum, 0.89g/t iridium, and 0.2g/t rhodium.